I Was Born A Jew, I Will Die A Jew

An objection or excuse for not believing in the Messiahship of YESHUA is often urged by our people in the following words, I must not change the religion of my fathers; I was born a Jew and must therefore die a Jew.  I will turn this objection on yourselves so that you may see the unreasonableness of it. You believe that yours is the only true and living GOD, and that there is no GOD beside Him, and you look forward to a time when the heathen in all the ends of the earth will throw away their idols which are no gods, and will acknowledge that their fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit (Jeremiah 16, verse 19).  And will say one to another, ‘Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the GOD of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. (Isaiah, Chapter 2, verse 3). 

But according to the principle contained in your objection, it will be absolutely wrong on their part to forsake the gods of their fathers, or on your part as the representatives of your GOD, to teach them to believe and worship a GOD whom their fathers did not acknowledge.  And if you think that when you convince the poor idolater by rational evidences that the LORD is the only true and living GOD, is it his duty to acknowledge and worship Him, even though his fathers knew Him not?  Then you must act on the same principle yourselves, and receive YESHUA on account of the overwhelming evidence to His Messiahship, though our fathers were ignorant of Him.

Observe also that GOD nowhere commands us to follow in the paths of our fathers if those paths lead us away from Him, but He does, again and again, plead with us to turn from the ways of our fathers, and pronounces severe judgments if we do not do so.  Koh amar Adonai, imdu al derachim ur’u ve-shaalu lin’tivot olam ey-zeh derech ha-tov ul’chu bah umitz’u margoa lenaphshechem.   Thus saith the LORD, ‘Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.  Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.  I am the LORD your GOD; walk in My statutes and keep My judgments, and do them’. (Jeremiah 6, verse 16; and Ezekiel 20, verse 18 and 19).

Abraham did not argue as you do when he heard GOD’s voice bidding him to leave his father and his father’s gods.  Nor did he at all hesitate to change his religion for the worship of Jehovah.  As long as it is merely a question of our religion, we might as well change it, and the sooner the better, for it is worth nothing!  We want GOD’s religion!

But if you think that by receiving Messiah in your hearts you cease to be a Jew, you are mistaken, for it is then you become a true Jew, a true son of Abraham; not only after the flesh, but after the spirit.  You indeed cease to be a rabbinist, but rabbinism, though it is the essence of modern Judaism, is not true Judaism.  The Judaism of Moses and the Prophets, you will find embodied in the Messiah, and faithfully observed by all true followers of Messiah.  It is they who have the faith of Abraham (Genesis 15, verse 11): And an High Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Isaiah 53; Hebrews 7, verse 25). 

Dear brethren, let me in conclusion, plead with you for the sake of the salvation of your souls, and for the sake of GOD whose purpose in our Nation is that they not only be saved themselves, but that in their turn, they become saviours of the world!  To bestir yourselves and begin to seek the LORD your GOD, and David, your king.  Awake from the deep sleep of indifference on the one hand, and shake your garments clean of rabbinism on the other, and it may be the LORD’s controversy with you will be at an end, and the time to favour Zion has come.  Draw near to GOD, not only with your lips and mouth, but with your hearts, and cry, Give ear O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the Cherubim, shine forth, before Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Thy strength and come and save us.  Turn us again, O GOD, and cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. And the GOD of Israel Who has not forgotten to be gracious, and has respect unto those who have a broken heart and contrite spirit, the GOD Who many times before delivered our people when the earnest cry of their hearts went up to Him, will once more appear for your salvation, in the person of your own Messiah, whom your fathers, in the blindness of their hearts, did reject.  Do not sit idly looking on while thousands and millions of Gentiles enter into the Kingdom of GOD, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to enjoy the rich feast of GOD’s love.  Lest ye who are the children of the Kingdom, be at the last, cast into outer darkness. 

Large numbers of Jews are in these days, brought by the grace of GOD to acknowledge YESHUA, JESUS of Nazareth as LORD of all, and many of them come and tell you that they have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write, and testify that in Him, they have found that peace of heart for which they vainly sought elsewhere! Will you not receive their testimony?  Will you still, against fact and reason, denounce them all as either hypocrites or mad?  Beware and harden not your hearts as our fathers did in the wilderness, lest GOD swear unto you also that you enter not into His rest.   O LORD, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel.  Ha-aminu b’Adonai eloheychem ve-teyamenu, ha-aminu bin’viav, vehatzlichu. Believe in the LORD your GOD; believe His Prophets, so shall ye prosper. (2 Chronicles, Chapter 20, verse 20).